The increasing trend of the smartphone has led to the need for a robust mobile application for your business that could run flawlessly on multiple platforms. Further, various advancements taking place in app development are challenging for professionals and experienced developers as they need to consider every aspect of app elements while building a functional, responsive, and compatible smartphone application. Many application frameworks like Titanium and PhoneGap were developed to simplify and expedite app development with easy-to-build tools. Titanium mobile app development is a smart move for businesses as it enables them to create top-notch applications for their businesses in a short span of time.

What is Titanium app development framework?

Titanium mobile app development framework is provided by Appcelerator and it is an open-source platform for building cross-platform mobile applications. It is licensed under Apache and provides an integrated environment to build an extensive range of smartphone applications for different operating systems, including Android, iOS, BlackBerry, along with hybrid and HTML5 applications. Titanium comes with an open-source SDK, an Eclipse-based IDE, Studio, MVC framework, Alloy, and Cloud Services for mobile back-end.

Features of Titanium mobile app development framework

Titanium comes with lots of features this is why it is being preferred by developers for creating mobile applications. Let’s explore some of the features of this framework:

This open-source app development platform is loaded with a JavaScript-based SDK which helps developers in creating high-end mobile applications.

The core functionalities of this framework include all cross-platform API features including using and retrieving the native UI components like navigation bars, dialog boxes, menus, and other native app functionalities that include network, accelerometer, maps, and system.

It also provides transparent and easy access to major native functionalities.

This framework comes with exclusive features that enable developers to build and deploy apps without facing compatibility issues on different devices such as tablets, mobiles and desktops.

Benefits of using Titanium mobile app development framework

It is easy to understand the essential aspects of Titanium for developers as it consists of powerful working technologies like JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, jQuery, and AJAX.

Being an open-source platform, it is easily accessible to developers.

It is easy to build feature-rich applications with Titanium because it has a platform-independent API which enables the user to access advanced native device features like GPS, cameras, touchscreen, maps, storage, navigation, contacts and more.

Titanium supports HTML5, CSS3, and other powerful web technologies. Therefore, it is easy for developers to create applications for iOS, Android, and other major mobile platforms. So, developers do not need to create multiple instances of an application for different mobile devices and operating systems.

With the integrated environment available with Titanium, developers can quickly build prototypes of applications and obtain user feedback as soon as possible.

Titanium framework offers cost-effective, flexible, scalable, and convenient method for developing mobile applications for different devices. Hence, this framework has opened up opportunities for developers to build outclass applications for different fields.

Appcelerator Titanium Vs Adobe PhoneGap

When it comes to developing mobile apps that can be deployed to multiple platforms and still harness the potential of their native capabilities, there are many app development frameworks to choose from. Some developers might opt for PhoneGap which uses web technologies like HTML5 to build applications for different platforms along with support for native APIs. Some developers may choose Titanium as their app development framework which has JavaScript as its codebase and create native code from JS. But, which application framework should you opt for to build your app? Let’s figure out which one of these frameworks you can choose for developing your app.

While PhoneGap provides easy transition from web to smartphone app development, it requires you to use HTML5, CSS3, along with DOM based JavaScript coding to create applications. On the other hand, developers can create world-class application in JavaScript with Titanium as it only requires knowledge of JS for developing apps. Why learn HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, when you can create apps with only JS. Appcelerator Titanium also wins over PhoneGap in terms of performance as it enables to create native code and doesn’t rely on HTM5 and supported features in smartphone browsers as in PhoneGap.

However, PhoneGap outweighs Titanium in terms of deployment because applications built with PhoneGap are web based and can be easily accessed from any HTML5 supported mobile browser.

How to speed up app development with Titanium?

Titanium mobile app development process can be tedious when things keep coming back and you do not do enough to speed up your app development process. There are always some useful practices that you can follow to expedite your coding speed with Titanium, so you can spend more of your time on actually developing apps.

1. HTTP calls

Most apps need HTTP calls to work with network, but rewriting your code all the time for the same task can be time-consuming. However, there are many good libraries/modules that you can use to set it up and standardize it. You can search many such resources on the internet and use a secure and reliable library for your app.

2. Stylize app window

If you want to style every window of your app in the same manner then unifying your style would be easier to implement the style for different windows. Oftentimes, developers put the same style again and again in every tss file. But, you should create a class in your app.tss file then apply it in any controller file whenever you need it. Find the code snippet below for reference:

Shouldn’t you use “Window”: {” logic for styling? However, in case you want to design a specific window differently, then either you will need to alter every window and add a class to the point where you want to make change or you may override properties that don’t need.

3. Unifying more styles

Like in #2, you may want to keep the labels in the same style throughout the application. To do this, you can use a class in app.tss file for creating a style and apply it to all the labels in different controllers. Like in CSS, it is possible to apply more than one classes to a label. Make sure to naming every class in a way that you can easily understand different classes.

Bad example: #label15ptblackGood example: #defaultLabelStyling

Final Words!

The landscape of mobile app development is changing rapidly and developers need to understand various intricacies rising in the realm of application development which is challenging. App development frameworks like Titanium mobile app development platform is a helpful way to build high-end mobile applications quickly and conveniently. Such frameworks not only serve as ready-made ingredients for app development, but they also help make development process faster. Developers can now spend more time building quality mobile apps instead of writing the same codes and modules again and again.